4H4 



REVIEW. 



"THE GAME ANIMALS OF INDIA, BURMA, MALAYA 



AND TIBET." 



A NEW AND REVISED EDITION OP THE GREAT AND SMALL GAME OF INDIA. 



Burma and Tibet, by R. Lydekker. 



In these days when there are so many contributors to our knowledge of the 

 larger mammals that come under the designation of " Game " — large and 

 small — and facilities for travel are being continually extended in such coun- 

 tries as India and its dependencies, it is extraordinary how quickly a book 

 relating to them becomes out of date and requires revising in accordance with 

 extended acquaintance with the animals of whose forms and habits it treats. 

 Such a work was Mr. R. Lydekker's handsome quarto volume on " The Great 

 and Small Game of India, Burma and Tibet " which was published seven 

 years ago. At that time it could fairly be considered the embodiment of the 

 latest conclusions of science and of records in a concise form that would suit 

 the sportsman's requirements ; and its popularity and usefulness, in spite of its 

 somewhat bulky form and high cost, is evidenced by the fact that it is now 

 out of print. The sportsman's library, owing to the steadily increasing demand 

 for such works, is for this reason certainly kept better supplied with revised 

 editions in a concentrated form than that of the more scientific student, for the 

 latter has to keep in touch with a vast number of technical periodicals if he 

 desires to be abreast of the times with his nomenclature and information. As 

 an instance in point we may mention the volume on Mammalia in the "Fauna 

 of British India," which was completed and published by the late Dr. Blanford 

 in 1891. Excellent and of the greatest value to every student of Indian 

 mammals as it was then and for some years, it is by now almost hopelessly 

 obsolete so far as nearly all the smaller mammals are concerned, and until a new 

 edition is forthcoming is in danger of hampering rather than assisting the 

 ordinary naturalist, who is unable to do more than spend a few odd hours or days 

 at the British Museum after four or five yeais of hard work in the East. Lucky 

 it is for the sportsman, therefore, that things keep moving and that the re-issue of 

 such books as Mr. Lydekker's is encouraged, for besides the additions bringing 

 the material up to date, experience indicates other minor improvements. In this 

 case these have, amongst others, taken the form of a much more convenient 

 octavo size and a greatly reduced cost without sacrificing to any material extent 

 its utility or its excellent plates. 



The rapidity with which the times move now-a-days is indicated in the 

 author's preface, in which he refers to the opportunity he had had, since the text 

 was in type, of examining a specimen of the red Serow, that was described by 

 Blyth from the hill-ranges of Aracan on the sea-board of Upper Burma in 1863 

 and that now at last turns up in a locality so far distant as near Mogaung on 

 the eastern border of the Singpo country. The question of regarding the red 

 Serow as a "colour-phase" or as a "local-race" of course suggests itself and 



